He is risen!

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and CEO of WND and a nationally syndicated columnist with Creators News Service.. He is the author or co-author of 13 books, including his latest, "The Tea Party Manifesto," and his classic, "Taking America Back," now in its third edition and 14th printing. Farah is the former editor of the legendary Sacramento Union and other major-market dailies.

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth” (Isaiah 53:7).

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

This is Good Friday. I’m still not sure why we call it “Good Friday,” because this is the day in which Christians around the world commemorate the Crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Crucifixion was an ugly practice. There was and is perhaps no more painful
way to die. And that’s how Jesus chose to die to pay for our sins. According
to the prophet Isaiah, who foretold His death, Jesus was scourged, tortured
and marred more than any other man. Nails through the hands, nails through
the feet and a crown of thorns puncturing His head. Jesus was whipped; His
torso was pierced with a spear.

That hardly sounds like a Good Friday to me.

Personally, I think we should drop the Good Friday name along with the name of the holiday that follows on Sunday. Easter, too, is a lousy name for a very good holiday — in fact, I would argue, the most important holy day on the Christian calendar.

Why is Easter a bad name? Because Easter was a pagan festival. And we celebrate it today — with Easter bunnies and eggs and other fertility symbols — much like the ancient Saxons marked it in the pre-Christian period.

So, without belaboring the issue, I say we should drop the “Good Friday” stuff and rename Easter “Good Sunday.” That would make sense, since it is the day we Christians rejoice that Jesus is alive and risen from the dead — our conquering Savior from all sin. It is a good day, indeed — the best day of the whole year, the best day in the history of man.

Easter, or, should I say, Good Sunday, is not about eggs, bunnies, flowers and springtime. It’s about a Lamb — the Passover Lamb.

Remember what John said the day he saw Jesus coming toward him at the Jordan River? He proclaimed Jesus the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

John was a Jew. Jews traditionally, since the time of Moses, sacrificed an unblemished lamb at Passover. The First Passover for the Jews came in Egypt, when they were instructed to mark their doorways with the blood of an unblemished (or sinless) lamb. This sign would protect them from the angel of death sent to Egypt to claim the lives of all first-born sons.

And here was John — recognized by many in Israel as a young prophet — saying that Jesus was the “Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.”

Indeed, Jesus is the Lamb. He was the first-born Son of God. His blood was shed for us. God did not spare or protect His own Son, but spared us — those He loves and who love Him — by having Jesus be the pure sacrificial Lamb, who not only protects us from the angel of death for a time, but for eternity.

It may be a coincidence that Jesus’ death and Resurrection coincided with pagan fertility rites. But it is certainly no coincidence that His death and Resurrection occurred around the Jewish feasts of Passover and unleavened bread. Jesus is the Passover Lamb, and He is the Unleavened Bread.

The true meaning of the Feast of Unleavened Bread was brought home to Christians by the Apostle Paul, who wrote, in 1 Corinthians 5: 7-8, “Get rid of the old yeast that you may be a new batch without yeast — as you really are. For Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.”

Yeast represented sin — through decomposition and fermentation. Once we are freed from sin through the blood of Jesus, we are then encouraged to avoid the old sin ways.

Today, many so-called Christians have forgotten their Jewish roots. They don’t understand the symbolism and message of the Jewish feasts. They don’t get the relevance of the Old Testament. They don’t grasp that they are spiritual adoptee children of Abraham. Some today even fail to acknowledge that Jesus Himself was Jewish — a rabbi, who came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. But, then again, maybe such folks are not really Christians at all.

In some European countries today, they still call Easter “Pascha” — a much better name. This is derived from the Hebrew word pesah, which means passover. Jesus was celebrating the Jewish festival of Passover shortly before He was arrested and sentenced to be crucified. Passover recalls how God rescued the Jews from slavery in ancient Egypt. Christians believe that Easter, like Passover, is a time of rescue. We say that by His Death and Resurrection, Jesus rescued us from eternal death and punishment for our sins.

That’s why I will be rejoicing this Sunday — Good Sunday. And that’s why even on a Bad Friday, I still have hope.